The invention concerns a device for supplying of movable users with a pressure fluid, with a supplying feed line which has a plurality of tap points arranged mutually distanced over the length of the line, and having at least one connection unit supported movable along the feed line for a respective tap line, the tap points having at least one tap valve, convertible from a closed to an open position by moving the connection into a connecting position, and sealing means being provided, in the zone of the connection unit between tap valve and tap line entrance, becoming automatically active with the opening of the tap valve, for the outer sealing of the connection unit. Such devices are used, for example, in the form of more or less extended compressed air or compressed water tap systems, for the selective movable supplying of movable tool machines or transportation devices.
A device of the above-mentioned kind is known, for example, from U.S. Pat. No. 3,195,562. There, lift valves are provided at the individual tap points, which are held in the closed position under the action of the pressure fluid. The connection unit, set at a tap point, must therefore be brought into its open position by means of an actuating member which is under a relatively strong opening pressure force, sufficient to overcome the closing force of the valve. This opening pressure force is built up, there, by the compression of a spring by means of an inclined run-up track with movement of the connection unit into the tap or connecting position, and upon catching in the connection position, spring force is transmitted directly to the lift valve member, which is under the pressure fluid effect in the feed line. The actuating force necessary for opening, and thus the resistance to be overcome in bringing the connection unit into the tap position, are necessarily relatively great, which makes handling difficult.
Another known tap device of the kind mentioned is known from British Patent No. 1,501,091. There, the tap valves are also designed as lift valves, held in the closed position under the pressure of the fluid in the feed line, which are opened by means of complicated and expensive conversion gears to intensify the actuating force of opening and with the aid of a motor drive assembly for the moving of the connection unit to the tap point.